Calling All Crows: State Radio mobilizes fans for "Green Summer of Service" tour

What are you doing in the hours before your next concert? Maybe dinner with friends, or cocktails, or some tailgating in the parking lot?

How about getting your hands dirty alongside the band and other fans?

That’s what Boston band State Radio is doing as part of its “Green Summer of Service” project, organized through the band’s non-profit activist arm, Calling All Crows.

The Green Summer of Service follows State Radio’s current tour of the northeastern US. It’s the band’s most ambitious hands-on volunteer campaign ever, with a goal of engaging 500 fans volunteering over 2,000 hours at environmental service projects in 15 different cities. Click on any show date below to learn about the specific project in your city, and how you can participate:

In 2009, the organization raised $100,000 for the Stoves Project, providing 5,000 energy-efficient stoves for Sudanese women who would otherwise risk being raped when collecting firewood away from their refugee camp. State Radio and their fans also served 3,000 hours at local volunteer projects.

In 2010, they organized Alternative Break tours, during with a dozen service-minded State Radio fans packed into a tour bus and volunteered with various environmental service organizations along the band’s tour route.

Calling All Crows is also renewing its dedication to serving internally displaced women of Darfur through the Darfur Camps Project and will focus on livelihood training and income generation in 2 camps, Abu Shouk and El Salaam. Every dollar raised goes to help the women in three different ways: Trees, Training, and Donkey Carts.

Lots of bands go on tour, and lots of bands are active, but State Radio and Calling All Crows are doing an impressive job of organizing their fan base — and working alongside them — to put some real effort behind the issues they care about.

So, find some gloves and put on your grubby shoes and let’s get out there for some service work. It’ll make that cold beer at the show taste that much better.